


Tromso?

by seren_ccd



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, super secret pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-13
Updated: 2012-06-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 07:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seren_ccd/pseuds/seren_ccd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coulson had kind of missed his assistant.  Post-The Avengers fix-it fic.  Unabashedly fluffy.  Written for the Avengers Kissing Meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Tromso?”

Coulson looked up from his tablet to see Darcy, still wrapped up in a massive coat and a knitted (by Darcy herself) green bobble-head hat standing in the doorway of his room. He fought the urge to straighten up in his bed and simply said, “Hello, Miss Lewis.”

“Do you have any idea what’s in Tromso?” she asked as her fingers attacked the buttons on her coat and then shook it off. “Fuck all, that’s what. I can’t believe you sent me there when _clearly_ I was needed here.”

“I had everything under control,” he said setting his book down on the bedside table.

“Obviously,” she said flatly staring at the bandage peeking out underneath his shirt. The longer she stared, the more she seemed to deflate, until she dropped her coat on the floor, along with her bag. Then she walked over to sit on the edge of the bed next to him. Her hat stayed on.

Phil stared back at her, just unashamedly _stared_ and documented every inch of her face. He could blame it on the drugs later if he needed to, but Christ. He’d kind of missed his assistant. There had been no one to keep him informed about _everything_ that was going on. Darcy’s ability to find out the oddest bits of information that often turned out to be vital within the initiative was unparalleled. Not to mention her attention to detail and how she always knew precisely when he needed a new cup of coffee or an oatmeal cream pie. 

He’d also missed her laugh. 

“So,” she said a little shakily, her fingers splayed out on the bed very close to but not touching his elbow. “Loki’s a real asshole, huh?”

“I imagine that’s what floating around in an abyss of universes does to a god,” Phil said.

Darcy snorted. “Nuh uh. No excuses for the dude who hurt you.” Then she sighed. “God, I can’t believe that Fury lied to them all about you.” Phil opened his mouth, but she went on, “Actually, I _can_ believe that Fury lied to them all about you, considering he’s the most magnificent bastard of all time.”

Phil had to nod, because she wasn’t wrong: Fury _was_ the most magnificent bastard of all time. 

“What _really_ gets me is what he did to your cards,” she said her voice breaking a little on the word ‘cards’. “I mean, who does that? How much of a drama-llama is he? Do you know how long it took me to find those last two? A really, really long time, that’s how long. The bastard.”

“Darcy,” he said.

She looked at him and he was struck once again by how large and lovely her eyes were.

“Don’t ever send me away again, boss,” she said. “That was not cool.”

Her fingers were now touching his elbow and they were chilled. She probably didn’t wear gloves the entire time she was in Norway, he thought. She never does remember them.

“Darcy,” he said again.

“I mean,” she said as she stared at the wall above his head. “I am aware that I am just your assistant-”

Phil reached his hand across his chest to grab her hand and ignored the pull and ache of his wound. “You have never been _just_ anything in your life. Certainly not to me.”

It was Darcy’s turn to just stare at him. Then she frowned and looked away. Phil turned his head to look straight ahead, staring blankly at the doorway.

Oh, why not? he thought. He turned his head back to tell Darcy that he’d missed her just as she leaned forward.

Her lips pressed against the corner of his mouth and a flush spread over his body and his battered lungs ached as his heart rate increased.

She pulled back and blinked at him. He stared at her.

“I was aiming for your cheek,” she said.

“Okay,” he said.

“I mean, it would be completely unprofessional of me to actually kiss you,” she said hurriedly. “Even though I want to. And have wanted to. For a while. And I probably shouldn’t have said that either, but well, you got stabbed and there’s that whole life’s too short thing and yeah.” She made a face. “And it’s not like super secret agents are allowed to kiss back, right?”

Phil reached up and slid his hand across her cheek, loving how her breath caught at his touch.

“Oh, no,” he said. “We’re allowed.”

Then he pulled her down and she was grinning when their lips met.


	2. Plans, emergencies, and new habits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy comes up with a plan, which is naturally interrupted by bad guys. Typical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A sequel to Tromso? Beta'd by the fantastic fringedweller. There is some mild violence in this chapter. Explosions and tall buildings are involved.

As the representative from SHIELD’s corporate performance team described the new project monitoring system, Darcy let her thoughts wander. And as per usual, they wandered right over to Phil Coulson. Well, Phil Coulson and that kiss he’d given her three months and one week ago in his hospital room.

As the corporate guy moved onto his next agenda point, Darcy thought about her latest conundrum (thanks again, Auntie Linda for the word a day calendar!). Her conundrum was actually pretty simple: Phil Coulson had neglected to kiss her again.

Oh, he still gave her looks and smiles and would do this thing where his hand would hover over her lower back as they walked down the hall (they were _so_ Josh and Donna from the _West Wing_ that it made her grin and bounce in the privacy of her own bedroom). However, there had been no further kissage. None.

And this was unacceptable.

Although, to be fair, it was completely understandable.

It had taken Coulson several weeks to get back to his typical fighting form, and Darcy had been there for all of it. She was his PA after all and who better to make sure the man was doing what he was supposed to be doing than the person who’d been hired for it in the first place.

Not that she had been alone. Once the rest of the Avengers found out that Phil was still alive, someone from the team had been around a fair amount of the time. Darcy was still hoping that a video recording of the team losing their collective shit over Phil at Fury existed somewhere.

Especially the part where Steve had stood up, walked over to Fury and said in this _voice_ , “You should be ashamed of yourself. Sir.”

It had been epic and both Darcy and Coulson made a sound very much like a sigh, although Phil had been able to mask his as a moment of discomfort and not pure, unadulterated adoration.

But that had been at the beginning of his recovery and now he was away on a mission managing that particular brand of chaos that only superheroes could wreak.

“I’m feeling one hundred percent, Darcy,” he’d said before leaving the office.

She’d narrowed her eyes. “Don’t bullshit me, Phil. It’s more like eighty-eight percent.”

“That’s good enough for me,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”

“Oh, my God! Why did you say that?” she said searching her desk for some salt to throw over her shoulder or something. “Never say that! Bad juju, Phil! Bad, bad juju!”

“I don’t believe in juju,” he said starting to smile a little (the corners of his mouth were doing that twitchy thing). 

“Yeah, well, it believes in you,” she retorted. “Just. God. Be careful? Please?”

“I will,” he said putting his hand on her shoulder and she wanted to swoon, as in seriously sway on her feet towards his body. “You, too.”

“Hey, I’m not the one flying off into the unknown,” she said. 

He’d just given her a proper smile and then left.

That was two days ago and the mission had been successful and they were headed back.

 _Thank God,_ she thought. _I wonder if I can just lay one on him when we’re going over the mission reports. Or ooh, I know, before he has to debrief Tony. I’ll tell him it’s for moral support._

Darcy had pulled out her notepad to start listing all the possible ways she could kiss Coulson when a loud explosion rocked the building.

Everyone in the meeting froze for a half a second and then they were on their feet, talking tensely into their earpieces.

“That wasn’t inside,” Darcy said to Ray, her contact in Security.

“It wasn’t,” he said. She could hear his feet slapping against the floor as he ran down a hallway. “It was external. We’re under attack. HYDRA forces.”

“Who’s dealing with them?” Darcy asked as she walked briskly down the hall and motioning to people to head her way.

“Security and the Beta Team with Fury and Hill,” Ray said.

“Good.” Then she tapped her earpiece so that she reached everyone. “The building is under external attack, so this means emergency evac protocol four. So follow the plan and get moving!”

One of the things that Darcy had worked on during the long, long nights and days by Phil’s bedside was the SHIELD emergency evacuation plans. She had been amazed and then dismayed by the amount of duplication and response times. So, since she had time to kill, she, along with Phil and other people from the individual departments, completely reorganized the plans into something that made more sense and should produce better results and most importantly: Get everyone the hell out safely.

She totally owed it to watching her elementary school teachers herd a thousand little kids onto the playground during fire drills. 

“HR, report!” Darcy said as she reached the twelfth floor.

“First section out and clear, second section on their way,” Amanda, the pensions lady said. “We’ve got a few injuries, Darcy.”

“Emergency services should be on their way,” she said. “Ray?”

“Almost here,” he said. “There’s a team from medical already in evacuation point A. Head there.”

“HR, you copy that?” Darcy asked.

“Received and second section is out the door,” Amanda said.

“Legal, repo-“

Another explosion hit the side of the building closest to Darcy and she and two other people were thrown against the wall as the windows shattered.

“Fuck me!” she said under her breath as she got to her feet and helped Simon from Accounting up. Something pulled sharply at her shirt and her suit jacket and she thought she heard something tear, but she just pushed Simon ahead of her towards to the stairs. “Legal, report!”

“Almost out. You okay, Lewis?”

“Could really use a cookie right about now, but all good,” Darcy said as she hit the stairwell. “R and D! Report!”

“Fifth floor and moving, Darcy.”

“Property services!”

“Ground floor and almost to evac point!”

“Emergency services have arrived,” Ray’s voice was strained. “And Hill’s team has almost taken out the other guys.”

“Thank God,” Pam from Legal said. “All of Legal is out, Darcy.”

Darcy nodded and her vision swam a bit as they circled the stairs. “Accounting?”

“Free and clear!”

Darcy hit the ground floor with the rest of the people from her meeting just in time to see Fury and Hill take out a large black van. Other SHIELD agents were in the midst of subduing HYDRA agents and she saw Ray in the corner slam a dude in black into a wall and she knew that all was almost right with the world.

“The Avengers are back!” Pam said over the comms which was met by a chorus of cheers.

Darcy winced at a pain in her side ( _stupid cramps_ , she thought absently) and when she got outside to the evacuation point, she turned to face the building. The damage wasn’t too bad considering, but she had to be sure.

“All departments, sound off!” she said.

“HR, all clear, but with injuries!”

“Legal, all clear, with injuries.”

“Accounting, all clear.”

“IT, all clear, but Dave’s got a broken arm.”

“Property services, all clear with injuries.”

“Miss Lewis.”

Darcy turned sharply to see Phil standing next to her, looking worried.

“Hi,” she said. “Welcome back. Hang on. Security? Ray, how’s it going?”

“All clear, but we’ve lost a few guys. Damn it.”

Darcy winced again. “Anyone missing?”

“Miss Lewis,” Phil said again.

She held up her hand to stall him.

“Nope, we’re all here, Darcy,” Pam said.

“Banged up, but in one piece,” Amanda said.

“Darcy!” Phil practically barked at her.

“What?” she said loudly turning to him fully. Her vision went a little gray at the edges. She finally focused on his eyes that were staring her midsection. She looked down.

The bit of her shirt visible under her suit jacket was very red and kind of dripping. She opened her jacket and saw a shard of glass protruding from her side.

“Oh,” she said. She looked back up at Phil and asked, “When did that happen?”

The last thing she saw was his eyes widening and the last thing she heard was, “All departments are clear of the building.”

* * *

Adrenaline was an incredible thing. That was her first thought upon waking up. She blinked at the ceiling and then looked left and then right. Phil was on her right, staring at her.

“Have you already de-briefed Tony?” she asked, her throat feeling like sandpaper. She made a feeble gimme motion with her hand to the water he held for her.

“Yes, I have,” he said. “Why do you ask?”

“I had a plan,” she said after drinking the entire cup of water. “I thought of it in the meeting before the whole ‘splodey thing.”

“Okay,” he said. Then he sighed and lightly touched her hand.

“How bad?” she asked.

“Well, you had a sizable piece of glass from the twelfth floor window in your abdomen, but it miraculously didn’t hit anything extremely vital,” he said. “You should be up and moving around in a day or two. Slowly moving around.”

Darcy shook her head. “Not me. Everyone else. How bad was it?”

Phil picked up her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. Her heart monitor beeped a bit faster.

“There were three casualties and about two dozen seriously injured,” he said against her hand. “You being one of them. You did exceptional work, Miss Lewis.”

“Thanks, Agent Coulson,” she said faintly. “I was going to kiss you before you de-briefed Tony.”

“Oh?” he said pressing another kiss to her hand. “That would have been very nice.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too,” she said.

“I could kiss you now,” he said after hesitating only for a moment. “If you’d like.”

“Oh, I’d like,” she said nodding and then stopping because that made her dizzy. “But, the only other kiss we’ve had was in a hospital and doing that twice would be the beginning of a habit I don’t think I want.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “I’d still like to kiss you.”

Darcy smiled and closed her eyes, because she was definitely on the good stuff, and said, “Well, hold your horses and then kiss me when I’m out of here and we’re outside or in the office or over coffee and muffins.”

“I can do that,” he said softly and Darcy fell back to sleep.

And because Phil Coulson is a man of his word, he _did_ kiss her when she got out of there. He kissed her one evening as they walked out of their favorite diner (the one with the awesome tuna melts).

He simply let that hand that normally hovered over her lower back make contact and then slide around to her uninjured side. She turned towards him in surprise and closed her eyes as his lips met hers. It was soft and sweet and slow and when she fisted her hand around his tie, it turned hot and deep and wicked.

When it ended and she was pressed up against his car, his hands framing her hips and her hands cupping his face, she said, “I’m very okay with this becoming a habit.”

“How about that?” he said. “So am I.”

* * *

Darcy still totally kissed him before his next de-brief with Tony Stark. For moral support, you know.


End file.
